Physicians in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) who believe COVID-19 negatively affected their practice for the 2022 performance year now have until March 3 to file for an Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances (EUC) hardship exception. The previous deadline was Jan. 3.

The extension will allow qualifying physicians to request reweighting of MIPS performance categories due to the COVID-19 public health emergency and avoid a penalty. The deadline extension is available only to clinicians, groups, virtual groups, and Alternate Payment Model (APM) entities, and all applications for exceptions must be received by 8 p.m. ET on Friday, March 3. Applications received between Jan. 3 and March 3 will not override submitted data for individuals, groups, and virtual groups, CMS noted.